RACING/News round-up: Timmy Murphy will again team up with Beef Or Salmon when the horse makes his first start of the season later this week, but which race he will run in is still unclear.
As expected, the top-staying chaser was one of 15 left in the Anglo Irish Bank Munster National at yesterday's forfeit stage, but Beef Or Salmon has an alternative engagement available in Friday's National Lottery Agent Champion Chase at Gowran which would mean not running in a handicap.
His trainer, Michael Hourigan, said yesterday that the ground conditions at Limerick and Gowran Park will be a major factor on where Beef Or Salmon runs and he plans to walk both tracks this week.
"I will decide after that. There is a lot of rain about and I would prefer to run wherever the ground is better. Apart from that I don't know just yet," Hourigan said, before confirming that Murphy will ride wherever Beef Or Salmon goes.
But the trainer remained non-committal when asked about future riding arrangements for the season.
The former Grand National hero Monty's Pass is another Munster National possible, and the Limerick course manager, Angus Houston, was in upbeat form about conditions ahead of Sunday's feature.
"It's yielding and yielding to soft in places at the moment. There is quite a good forecast at the moment so I think it will be on the easy side of yielding.
"We haven't raced on the chase track since February and it is in super condition. Michael (Hourigan) has to decide on what's best for Beef Or Salmon, but we're hopeful he'll be here and from a local aspect there would be a huge swell of local support for the horse," Houston said.
If Hourigan ends up favouring the Gowran route, Beef Or Salmon is likely to end up racing against last season's leading novice, Nil Desperandum, whose season ended with an injury after the Drinmore Chase success in November.
"The plan is to run at Gowran and we hope Ruby Walsh will ride. He will then go for the James Nicholson Chase in November. He is in great form and seems to have improved a lot through the summer," said Nil Desperandum's trainer, Frances Crowley.
Twelve horses have been left in the Group Two Juddmonte Beresford Stakes at the Curragh on Sunday, and they include five from the Aidan O'Brien stable whose juveniles have hit form with a vengeance in the last week.
The Royal Lodge runner-up Scandinavia leads the Ballydoyle quintet, while the sole John Oxx entry is Laudable. Oxx has won the Beresford in the last two years with the subsequent Group One winners Alamshar and Azamour.
Dermot Weld has entered the Thurles maiden winner Merger and, significantly, he has also left in the Listed El Gran Senor Stakes winner Gaff, who was handed a 50 to 1 Epsom Derby quote after his successful Fairyhouse debut.
Michael Bell's Merchant, winner of his last four starts, including the Haynes & Clark at Newbury last time, looks the best of the cross-sea entrants.
Today's home action is at Downpatrick where Eglinton can help Rory Cleary close the gap on Cathy Gannon in the apprentice jockey's championship with a success in the second division of the handicap.
Cleary is seven behind Gannon, but Eglinton looks to have a shout today now that he is back on decent ground which is forecast to be "good to yielding" for flat horses. On quick ground at Tramore this summer he won his maiden, and it was a completely different surface at Tralee on his only subsequent start.
Corporate Express could go close in the first division of the apprentice handicap, but it will be disappointing if I'll Call You Back cannot go one better than a Galway second to The Dasher in the bumper.
